The Best of  Matagorda Fishing

Matagorda 2011

 

Lake Buchanan 2010
Ok, its not Matagorda, but it was a damn good trip.

Took a trip to Buchanan early August.  Water was a little low but I managed to find a sweet spot to set two trotlines with about 15 hooks a piece.  The next morning pulled the first fish off and she was 20lbs, two hooks down and I pulled off the 12 lb blue.  Last night I did not fair as well as I only pulled off a few small ones and the 10 lb blue.  In total we caught 20 fish.  19 on trot line and Roger caught a big channel cat the night before. Ended up with 35lbs of filets.  Not a bad trip.

Matagorda Trip 2010
 

In early June I went by myself down to Matagorda for Some Triple Tail and Trout Fishing with my good friend Capt. Lee Warmke.  On the first morning we managed a small stringer of specs from the kayak, then spent the rest of the day looking for Triple Tail.  Fished most of west bay before we finally struck pay dirt.  Hooked and boated my first tripletail, 13lbs.  The Next morning found us in East Bay and a limit by 10am.  Biggest Trout of my life, 27 inches.  Not a bad day when you limit out early and start throwing back 24 inch trout.

October 2008

I have heard stories of Fishermen keeping the best locations to themselves and when asked by friends on where the best places to fish, they are sent to locations, where the only thing swimming in the water are big Gar.  The Gar hole, as it is called, is a place where all these big gar have eaten everything in the water, and there is nothing left worth fishing for.  It can also be associated with hunting as well.  A �Gar Hole�, referring to a hunting location, with no signs of deer or other desirable animals left to shoot at.

After this trip, if I didn�t know any better, I would swear, that my good Friend Capt. Lee Warmke, was taking me to the Gar hole to fish.  Of course I know he would never do this on purpose.  Maybe, he was finally paying me back for shooting that Gold Medal Bull during one of his trips with me. 

Our trip to Matagorda in October 2008 will be another memorable trip thanks to Captain Lee Warmke of Half Breed Guide Service.

We left home around 8:30am on Friday Morning October 10, and arrived without incident at 2:30pm.  Once we unloaded our gear, we headed to the marsh to catch bait for some afternoon fishing at the dock.  Right off the bat we begin to catch a lot of Mangrove Snapper, with Samantha catching most of them as usual.  We were scheduled to meet Capt. Lee at the harbor at 7pm for some night time flounder gigging.  After we caught some snapper along with 8 other species of fish at the dock, which included Pinfish, hogfish, dogfish (which are quiet ugly, slimy, and full of spines), Atlantic croaker, a black drum, sand trout, and hard head catfish, we headed to the harbor.  Unfortunately every time I headed to the harbor on this trip, we ended up waiting 15 to 20 minutes waiting for a barge to pass under the drawbridge.  We finally made it to our destination with Capt. Lee waiting for us.

We made it to the flounder grounds just as the sun set and began our hunt.  Water conditions were not that great but we made the best of it.  By 11:00 that night we managed to boat 9 flounder, and lost 6, with two flounder pushing 5 to 6 lbs.  Not what we had hoped for, but that�s fishing.  Giving the water conditions, I�d say we did pretty well.  I managed to boat two and loose three, Samantha gigged the biggest and lost one, Janis boated one, and Capt. Lee boated 5 and lost two.  I got the impression, he had done this before.

The next morning we sleep in, and by 12:00 we were fishing on the dock again.  This day, we caught about 15 Sand Trout and a couple of snapper.  By the end of our dock fishing we had managed to catch 15 Sand trout, 18 snapper 7 croaker, one stingray, and about 10 dogfish, along with a few small bait fish.  This was our best outing as far as fishing from the dock at the cabin.

By 3:00 pm the second day, we were headed to west bay with Capt. Lee in hopes of catching some Speckled Trout and hopefully a few good Reds.  At our first spot we began to catch some quality Trout on our first pass.  It looked like it was going to be a good afternoon, despite the 20 mph wind.  I hooked up first with a quality keeper speck, probably my biggest ever, but was quickly put back in my place, when my wife, Gina, caught a monster.  Hers would weight around 6lbs and was probably 25 inches.  Not long after Samantha caught her biggest trout that went close to 4 lbs.  Both were way bigger than mine.  We ended up catching three more keepers, with a big sheep head, that Samantha caught, and headed back for another pass.  This time the bit was off, and we only scratched out two or three non keepers, with Janis catching just about every hard head in the bay.  For some reason, Janis couldn�t get away from those slimy catfish, but had fun catching them.  On the Third pass, we got into some small redfish, with Samantha catching a pretty nice one, her biggest, and the only keeper of the trip.  Janis managed to shake the hardhead curse and caught a respectable Red, but was � inch too short to keep.  At the end of this outing, we had 6 trout, one nice Red and a big sheep head.  Once again, given the weather conditions, we did pretty good.

The next morning, the girls slept in while Janis and I met up with Capt. Lee at the harbor at 5:45 am the last morning.  We headed to Big Boggy in hopes to snag a limit of Reds before we headed back to Junction.  We arrived at our first location just as the sun came up.  At our first location, I hooked up first with my biggest Redfish to date, but it came up one inch short to keep.  We caught a couple of smaller ones when the Capt. decided this spot was not good and we needed to move.  Janis was reeling in the last pole when he got the bit of his life.  Immediately we realized he had a big fish on.  Capt. Lee stated that we might have to tag this one, meaning it was a Redfish bigger than 28 inches.  We were hoping it was.  After about a 5 minute fight, we quickly realized that this was not a big redfish, as it rolled up near the boat.  Instead it was a 4ft plus Alligator Gar that would weigh close to 50lbs and maybe more.  To Janis, it didn�t matter.  He was battling the biggest fish he had ever seen.  After Janis fought this fish and got him to the boat, Capt. Lee made his first attempt to net the big fish to no avail.  It was too big for the net, which is something every fisherman wants to here.  With the fish still pulling Janis�s arms out of socket, we made another attempt to net the fish, this time we had a better angle and after a 10 minute fight had the mammoth in the boat.  The excitement and expression on Janis�s face was priceless.  Being there to watch a 16 year old boy, land the biggest fish of his life, is what it is all about.  Nothing else mattered to Janis that morning and if he didn�t catch another fish that day, he was ok with that.  I have to add, that almost three years ago to this exact date, on this very spot, while trying to catch the very same big Redfish, my wife Gina, caught the biggest fish of her life, a 12lb blue cat.  Go figure.

After Taking lots of photos of the big Gar, we pulled up stakes and headed to Lake Austin, where we hoped to catch something worth keeping.  We heard that the birds work working and had high hopes of cashing in.  About 30 minutes later we were drifting across a reef, and catching good numbers of both trout and reds, but all were too short to keep.  Capt. Lee said he had not been skunked in four years, and something was not right with the fish gods.  He said that for the rest of the morning we would not keep anything even if they were keepers, in hopes to set things back right and getting rid of any bad karma.  Not long after that we located a large group of birds and began catching keeper trout, and bigger reds.  We caught about 4 or 6 keeper trout but let them all go.  I caught two more redfish that were just shy of the legal limit which was an improvement, so I guess his plan worked.  Maybe next trip things will work out better.  We caught lots of fish on that last morning and had loads of fun.  It was well worth it.

We made it back to the Harbor by 11:00am that morning and said our goodbyes� to the Captain.  We had to get back to the cabin and begin to pack for the long trip home.  Over all this was the best trip we have had regarding numbers and quality of fish and look forward to next time.

Thank you Lee for the Great times, as usual, when conditions are not that great, you manage to outdo yourself.  I promise that the next time you come hunting with me, I will do my very best to put you on a 30+ inch Axis, if you promise to quit taking me to the Gar/Catfish Hole!

July 2007

Went fishing with Capt. Lee Warmke for Tripletails and specks but the weather and water conditions were not in our favor.
On Friday morning Capt. Warmke and myself decided to brave the 3 to 4 ft seas in his 23ft Gulf Coast bay boat in an attempt to catch Kingfish, Red Snapper, and possibly Sharks.  Went 30 Miles offshore after the Kings but the wind picked up and we had 3 to 4 ft seas to contend with.  First King hooked up landed in the Boat (about 12-15lbs).  We then lost about 8 kingfish before we could see them.  The were biting short and missing the hook.  Made some adjustment and managed to get two more to the boat and gaffed one of them (8-10lbs). I will tell you this, Kingfish can strip line so fast that if you fingers touch the line, they will get burned.  I know this from experience.  Seas were too rough to go after snapper so we headed closer to shore to try our luck for Shark.  Stopping on the way in to look for Ling (Cobia) and Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi or Dorado) with no luck. Once we got to the shark water and just as we put the second line in the water we hooked up within feet of the boat.  We let her take line to make sure she had the hook deep.  I engaged the reel, set the hook and watched a very large Black-tip Shark, around 7ft and over a hundred pounds, jump completely out of the water.  When she hit the water she gave it all she had and starting stripping drag, and then shortly after cut the steel leader.  Just more bad luck on the day.  As fast as we could, we got all 3 lines back in the water.  Within 30 minutes the big pin screamed again, and the FIGHT was on..  The Shark made a beautiful jump and I thought it was a small one 20lbs.  It was just a lot further out than I thought.  The closer we got him to the boat, the bigger he kept getting.  You don't realize just how strong these sharks are.  After 2 1/2 miles of being dragged around and about 1hr of tug-of-war, which at first I thought he was winning, got'em to the boat and Gaffed.  Once gaffed its still not over, took us another 10minutes to get it roped and over the rail.  4' 7" Blacktip, estimated weight 60lbs. What a Rush.  Wished we had more time to catch another but we decided to head in.  It was a good Day.

On Saturday Morning, went out to East bay to try our luck at Specs.  Samantha managed to out fish everyone in the entire bay.  She landed two very nice and respectable specks.  I only managed one.  Gina caught one Speck and one undersized Red and a lot of Hard heads.  That is her new nick-name -Hard Head.  The water and weather conditions were not in our favor.  Came back in and fished at the Cabin.  Believe it or not Gina managed to catch her first shark at the dock.  On dead shrimp, she managed to catch a small Bonnet Head Shark.  It was a small one but put up a very good fight.
We caught several Mangrove Snapper, Croaker, a couple of black drum, pig fish, pin fish, and a lot of Dog fish (bottom photos)
We also caught a few crabs.
It was a good trip and cant wait to do it again.  Next time we will take the Girls King fishing and maybe a big Black Tip.  Although we will probably have to tie Samantha to the Boat if she hooks up with a big shark.
 

October 2005

October 21 we spent the day with Capt. Lee Warmke of Half Breed Guide Service.  Capt. Lee took
us up the Big Boggy Creek inside the Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge after some big Red fish.  Although
we did not find the big reds, my wife managed to land a whopper of a blue cat that weighted 12lbs and my
Daughter caught her first redfish.  The sunrise in the Big Boggy was breathtaking and something we will
never forget.  Later in the day we headed to West Matagorda bay looking for Speckled Trout and managed
to catch a few keepers and one Nice Keeper Redfish, that once again my wife caught.  I think I caught one
keeper trout and one sheep head.  Both my wife and daughter, Samantha, out fished me on this trip.  I think
the Capt. planned it that way.  He would cast for Gina and Samantha and must have know just were to cast. 
That's what its all about, isn't it?  Capt. Lee was kind enough to allow us to fish off his uncle's pier after our
outing and we managed to catch a few more fish, most of which were not photographed and have no idea
what they were called.  From the pier we managed to catch 16 different species of fish, everything but
flounder, which we were after.  Although we did not managed to limit out on our guided fishing trip,
we did manage to have a great time.  Thank you Capt. Lee.